Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Now I know you southerners will tell me I'm doing it all wrong, that I have to slow cook this in an applewood smoker or something, but I'm sticking with my crockpot. It makes this dish the easiest thing in the world and absolutely droolworthy. Put a big scoopful of that juicy, saucy mess on some garlic bread and oh, momma. You will want to kiss the cook, even if that person is you. I'm not kidding.

(Do this the night before, preferably on a Sunday. Because, really, who wants to cook dinner on a Monday?*) Chop up onions and garlic, add to the pot. Cut the fishnet looking thing off the roast, rub it all over with the spices and see if you can shove some of the onions inside, too. Plunk the meat in the pot. Add about a half cup of water, cover and put in the fridge overnight. The next morning, put your crockpot on low and cook as long as possible.

Right before dinner, remove the meat and put it in a bowl. Drain the liquid from the crockpot and add the BBQ sauce. Pull off any remaining fat on the meat and throw it away. Then shred the meat with two forks, put it back in the crockpot and stir it up with the heated BBQ sauce.

Serve on whatever bread you like - or just eat it right out of the crockpot, like I do. (It's extra good with homemade coleslaw. But don't ask for that recipe, I never write it down.)

Miz: You can cook a turkey in a crock pot. You need one of the bigger crock pots and one of the smaller birds. Cut up the bird like you would a chicken before frying. Stuff everything in the crock and pour in some stock, beer, water, or whatever source of liquid you like along with spices of your choosing and maybe some veggies if they fit. Cook on high for several hours (get everything hot throughout) then switch to low for the rest of the day. You could also debone a big turkey to get it to fit or just get a turkey breast to cook. Falls off the bones. House smells amazing.

WV: rinessi (what you get when you cross a rhino with the loch ness monster)

Your recipe is very close to what Cooks Illustrated came up with for carnitas, Mexican pulled pork. Although they use a dutch oven instead of a crock pot and different spicing.

Try reducing the liquid to a glaze and the stirring it back into the pulled meat. No use losing all that tasty goodness to the drain.

If you like the crunchy outer part of slow roasted pulled pork, spread the pulled meat on a rack over a pan and broil, flip and broil the other side. Works best with the reduced liquid coating the meat.

Quite a bit the way I make it, only I skip the onions and add some malt vinegar to the water.One of my favorite uses for it after shredding is to add a bit of cumin to it and use it as taco and burrito filling.